Aisha Tyler Talks Directing Her Debut Feature Film Axis, Screening Saturday at NBFF

Television star, voice actor, comedian and podcast host Aisha Tyler has one looong resume, and you can add ‘director’ for her feature film debut Axis. While she’s best known on the small screen for Criminal Minds, hosting duties on The Talk and the new Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as the voice of super spy Lana Kane on Archer, Tyler worked behind the camera on her Kickstarter- backed indie action film, making its West Coast debut this weekend at the Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF).

Written by Emmett Hughes, Axis concerns an Irish movie star with a checkered past driving through LA rush hour traffic to a movie set. While en route, a series of events threaten his livelihood, sobriety and the lives of his loved ones. Compounded by the fact that the whole film takes place in his car, well— that’s the kind of joy ride action flick any fan of the genre would want to check out for themselves.

This weekend Tyler will be making appearances at NBFF for a Q&A after the screening, as well as being honored for her charity work for Planned Parenthood, Wounded Warriors and Trust for Public Land in a Variety gala at Balboa Bay Club. She’ll also sit on the panel discussing women in film and entertainment with Alison Eastwood and America Young.

To honor Tyler’s visit to OC, we caught up with her to discuss Axis, action film characters and filmmaking.

Note: this interview has been edited for clarity and length— mostly on my end, because it’s hard not to get tongue tied when you’re talking to Aisha Fuckin’ Tyler.

OC WEEKLY: You’ve described Axis as an “LA movie” where it heavily depicts Los Angeles, so people will be able to identify with it here.

AISHA TYLER: Pretty much, I think— even if you don’t live in LA—  who lives in the southland or Southern California would be able to relate to it, because the story is set with a guy driving through Los Angeles in rush hour trying to get from downtown to the beach… and that takes about an hour and a half and everybody in LA has had that experience of being stuck in your car, and trying to get through LA in that time of day and its something I really committed to. There’s something that’s kind of frustrating being stuck and there’s part of it that’s actually enjoyable cause the sun is setting; it’s that time alone where it can be solitary but can be kind of lonely and really dreamlike, so I really wanted to try to communicate to people what that felt like. I think if you’re a Los Angeleno you know what that experience is like.

When I read the description of the film, it struck me as a drama, with a central character going through his personal baggage in this film.

Yeah it’s kind of a story where this guy found all this success and he threw it all away. And then he was able to piece his life back together. But one day the whole movie takes place in one afternoon as he’s driving through Los Angeles- his life starts to come crashing down around him and he’s trying to put it back together. There are parts of the movie that are very dramatic and personal, there’s also a thriller element to it, and I think people will find themselves very surprised by it and delighted by the way the movie changes as it goes along.

So when you’re making a movie like that, how do you strike a balance between drama and action?

I think a lot of that came from the script, it was a great script. I think a lot of those choices which we shot one frame of film but it calls for the character and the character’s experience and what he’s going through.

For me, I love action films and I think the best action films make you care about the character. If you care about characters, you care about what happens to them in the movie. For me action movies that are all explosions and no character it doesn’t matter, its just explosion porn. But if you really care— and a great example is the Bourne Identity series— then you’re gonna care if he lives or dies and if he gets to where he’s going.

So everything springs from character from me and about really creating a fully dimensional character that audiences can connect with and they care about that they want to win. Not a perfect character, I wouldn’t say this guy is likable in the traditional sense, but he’s very human. And so his frailties and his foibles and self destructive tendencies are something almost anybody can relate to when they’re watching the movie and I think you really want this guy to win which is what makes it so meaningful.

I love that the movie takes place in one spot, inside the car…

You’re really connected to him, and then he’s in frame, in every single frame in this movie, so you’re really connected to him visually.

And I imagine creatively that presents a lot of challenges, so it’s always interesting to see how a filmmaker can go around those limits of space and dive into the character and what’s happening.

That’s a great point, and it was an important problem to solve before we even started filming. This is a single setting theme, single setting scenario, single setting film single location, how do we make that exciting. We shot a lot of different angles. Even though it’s just this guy in a car we gave ourselves a lot of choices. When I went into the editing booth I had lots and lots of different ways of looking at the character. We shot three camera angles a day for six days and so you know at the end I had over fifteen or sixteen camera angles to choose from, so that really helped.

What does the title ‘Axis’ mean?

It’s taken from a medical diagnostics manual that people used to figure out psychological disorders. But for me it means its more about this person’s life turning on an axis, that there are decisions that we make that aren’t really clear at the time, what kind of affect they’re gonna have on our life, on our relationships, on our past that your life can turn on its axis. This is a movie about redemption, about a man who has reached the pinnacles of success and reached the very dark rock bottom of failure and has come back from that failure.

It can turn and turn again but for me, this movie is about this guy trying to redeem himself in trying to show the people that he cares about that he can change and that he can turn things around, in an axis.

So do you see yourself going into making more action films in the future?

Well I love action, I think there are so few female directors in that space. I want to focus on action, not just ’cause there are no women doing it, its the style of filmmaking that I love the best. I’m already developing three film projects that are all in and around the action, thriller or horror area and that’s the area i’m probably going to focus in because when I was a little kid I went to the movies a lot and those were the kinds of movies I liked to look at the most, and I really think its important to direct from a place of passion with those stories that I want to tell. I want to tell more stories that have women at the center, strong female characters… there are very strong female characters in this story. I want to just find a way to tell stories that aren’t being told in hollywood

I know that you just said that you want to include more female characters in your films, but what else would you like to do with that genre, or what do you want to play around with?

To me, thrillers are about intimacy, these well drawn, fully dimensional characters that you care deeply about, those are the characters that you’re going to care whether they win or lose or whether they live or die. I think we focus too much on big explosions and lots and lots of money and how many things can we blow up and break and how many things we can drop from the sky, that’s just not interesting to me. I think that all great filmmaking comes from character first and story first. So I really want to tell stories that haven’t been told before, in ways that haven’t been told before. I love shooting in a single location, that was really interesting to me, so I’m probably going to focus on doing something that feels claustrophobic and really tight on characters cause I feel like that kind of intimacy really raises the stakes for the viewer.

It’s not about a million locations and a million exploding things but how can we get people to care. And if we care, you don’t need to blow anything up.

Another thing I thought about is how interesting it is that the ending for Axis is left open, and a lot of action films are formulaic where you have a beginning, middle and end— sometimes there’s an open end where it hints at a sequel, but this one has more dramatic ending to consider for yourself what happens.

Yes thats true. I think it’s fun when a movie is a good time, but I think it’s interesting when you leave with questions. I think it’s rare nowadays that movies give you anything to talk about, when they’re over they just end, or they lived happily ever after, or this guy died or whatever. I want to give people something to talk about, and the [writer/ lead actor Emmett Hughes] wanted to leave it up to the viewer to decide the end of the movie.

That was really exciting to shoot and to play, and at this last screening, people had a million theories about what happened at the end of the movie, and they get really engaged and excited. This guy raised his hand and was like, ‘I have a totally different theory about what happens at the end of the movie. And I’m right and I want you to tell me that I’m right.’ So it was so fun to talk about what happens in the movie and they weren’t frustrated, they were really engaged. Its just so interesting that your take on the movie is so different on my take of the movie.  I think nowadays especially with things like video games where theres a million different things can happen, and your experience can be different from mine, its great to get a film that resonates with them for longer than the 90 minutes that you’re watching it, ’cause I think that’s so rare.

Hollywood is so focused on putting a bow on everything, cleaning it up for you. I love not just that the movie is open ended, but people were thrilled by that. It’s a little independent film so its nice that when people leave the theater they say, ‘Oh I can’t wait to see it again because my experience is going to be different.’

And like you said there’s not enough movies that do that…

It’s true! They underestimate the intelligence of the audience, they feel like they have to serve everything up for you on a silver platter. I really want audiences to know I respect their opinions and to form their own ideas about this character and his life.

I know you shadowed a lot of directors to learn their techniques, which director would you say gave you the best advice as far as directing movies?

Now that’s a great question. Probably the person that gave me the best advice is Charles Dutton, who I interviewed years ago when I wasn’t even getting ready to make this movie. And he had directed himself in a lot of features at that point where he was acting in the movie and also directing. And he was just saying to hire smart people and trust your instincts, like don’t second guess yourself. Once you get in there, if you’ve prepared properly and you’ve put the energy on the timing . The fact of the matter is you can make a hundred different choices, and a hundred different ways in that moment. Once you’ve made that decision you commit to it fully and the film will turn out fine, and I think that’s been true. You can always second guess yourself afterwards, but in the moment you’ve just got to go with your gut.

Axis screens at Newport Beach Film Festival on Saturday, April 22nd at 3pm (with Q&A after) and April 26 at 5:15pm. For more information and tickets, go to www.newportbeachfilmfest.com.